Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi on Sunday said that his country might sever ties with diamond giant De Beers if talks to renegotiate a sales deal prove unfavorable to his government.
The country is Africa’s leading diamond producer, and Masisi called on the nation to rally behind his government as it tries to hammer out a better deal.
A 2011 sales agreement governing terms for the marketing of diamonds produced by Debswana — a 50-50 joint venture between the government and De Beers, which auctions most of the gemstones — was set to end in 2021.
It was extended by the parties, citing the outbreak of COVID-19 as the reason for the delay to conclude negotiations, and it is to run through June 30 this year.
“If we don’t achieve a win-win situation each party will have to pack its bags and go,” Masisi said at a rally of his ruling Botswana Democratic Party in his home village, Moshupa, about 65km from the capital, Gaborone.
Masisi said he was kick-starting the campaign for next year’s legislative election, adding that Botswana was facing a “Goliath” as far as the negotiations were concerned.
Under the 2011 agreement, De Beers sold 90 percent of diamonds while Botswana auctioned 10 percent through its Okavango Diamond Co. In 2020, Botswana’s share was raised to 25 percent.
Now, “we got insight into how the diamond market works and we discovered that we had been receiving less than what we should get,” said Masisi, who spoke both in English and the local Tswana language.
“We also discovered that our diamonds are making a lot of profit and that the [2011] agreement had not been beneficial to us,” he said.
“We are upping the stakes because we want a larger share from our diamonds. It can’t be business as usual,” he added.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
RSS